Welcome to the World of ‘Smart Borders’

(The Real Agenda News) Have you ever heard the term ‘smart borders’? Probably not, until now; and it is about time you know what it is and what it is being used for.

Travelers arriving from outside the European Union to the borders of Hungary, Greece or Latvia will be greeted by a new computer system that analyzes their physical behavior and facial gestures in search of imperceptible clues of lies or ‘strange behavior’.

Spain is also one of the participating members of the project, although at the moment the operations will only start in the three countries mentioned before.

The program, called Intelligent Portable Border Control System and summarized as iBorderCtrl, is composed of multiple protocols and platforms but its most innovative element is a portable device with which the border agents will check up to 38 facial micro-gestures carefully collected according to the questions asked by the agents.

iBorderCtrl is created and managed by a Luxembourg company called European Dynamics.

This information will be combined with the data of previous entrances and exits of the individual, will capture new pictures of the face and will verify the passports.

At the biometric level, it captures fingerprints, it will scan the veins and arteries in the palm of the hand, and with this data it will advise the border agent about the identity of that person.

The initial laboratory tests showed a reliability of 76% in terms of the detection of lies, but members of its creative team hope to raise it to 85% once it begins to be used in real environments and the algorithms can be adjusted with larger groups of people.

At the moment the participation in this test is voluntary on the part of those people who want to cross the border “more quickly”. As usual, technological invasions of privacy are sold as convenience, so people acquiesce to them.

Those who want, may opt for the traditional option, although it could lead to longer waiting times or more conscientious checks of their vehicles or luggage. This is another strategy by authorities: delay and inconvenience passengers and visitors so that they opt in, not out.

It will be the member agents of Frontex, the European body for the protection of borders and coasts, who will decide at all times how to assess the final access of each person who comes to their posts.

The project has been fully funded by European Union taxpayers -who are clueless about how enslaved they are- with a budget of 4.5 million euros and its initial phases began in September 2016.

For the moment, the European Commission has described iBorderCtrl as a success story in a publication on the official website.

The final objective of the European Union, they say, is to reduce the costs of border protection and accelerate the acceptance processes for the entrance of the more than 700 million people who pass their external borders every year.

This program is a contrast to the immigration policies of the EU, which accepts thousands of illegal immigrants every year, who cannot prove who they are or where they come from, but who in many cases become the main offenders of the most basic laws of the Union.

While the EU spends 4.5 million euros in programs like iBorderCtrl, the Union’s borders remain more open than ever before to illegals. This is clear proof that the main goal of this program is not to increase safety or security, but to create a gigantic Minority Report type database with the names, faces and fingerprints, among other features, of law abiding people who circulate within the continental European land.

About The Author

Luis R. Miranda is an award-winning journalist and the founder and editor-in-chief at The Real Agenda. His career spans over 18 years and almost every form of news media. His articles include subjects such as environmentalism, Agenda 21, climate change, geopolitics, globalisation, health, vaccines, food safety, corporate control of governments, immigration and banking cartels, among others. Luis has worked as a news reporter, on-air personality for Live and Live-to-tape news programs. He has also worked as a script writer, producer and co-producer on broadcast news. Read more about Luis.